Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to an electronic device, a network system including the same, and a remote control method thereof, and more particularly, to a remotely controllable electronic device, a network system, and a remote control method thereof using low power.
Description of Related Art
Recently, multiple electronic devices have been increasingly used in home and office environments. The electronic devices may be connected to external devices through a network. When a user is outside, the external devices are able to remotely control an operation of the electronic devices in the home or office.
In detail, many recent electronic devices support a wake-on-LAN (hereinafter, referred to as WoL) and thus the electronic devices in an off state may be turned-on remotely. Here, the WoL function means a technology of enabling a network manager to turn-on power supplies for several electronic devices which are at a remote place or convert a computer which is in a power saving mode into a normal state. The WoL function is performed by transmitting a wake on frame or a specific packet from a server in which applications for remote management on a network are installed to electronic devices to be controlled remotely, even when the power supplies for the electronic devices are turned-off. In this case, a network adapter apparatus in the electronic device is supplied with power to receive the wake on frame or the specific packet, and thus when the network adapter apparatus receives the specific packet, the turned-off devices may be woken up remotely.
To perform the WoL function, a repeater, which repeats communications between the corresponding network and an external network, may use a network address translation (NAT) table (hereinafter, referred to as NAT table). For example, when an external device transmits a turn-on command for turning-on an electronic device, the repeater may receive the turn-on command signal from the outside and transmit the turn-on command signal to the corresponding electronic device by using a NAT table. The NAT table matches a public IP address assigned to the repeater with a private IP address of the external device. That is, the repeater is connected to the external network to determine addresses of the electronic devices to which signals are transmitted, by keeping the NAT table. However, when there is no communication between the electronic device and the external device for a predetermined time, the NAT table is not kept updated, and thus the address of the electronic device may not be found. As a result, a general user has difficulty maintaining the address of the corresponding electronic device in the NAT table all the time.
Therefore, a need exists for a low power technology of keeping electronic devices in a remotely controllable state.
According to various exemplary embodiments, the network session of the electronic device is maintained using the low power, and thus the electronic device may be kept in the remotely controllable state.